Benefits of working in the Cloud

What is the Cloud? – Before we look at cloud benefits, there are still a large number of people who are not quite clear on what the cloud is exactly. The Cloud is another way of saying distributed services. Cloud infrastructure allows you to capitalize on a piece of software or a collection of applications that reside decentralized servers. As a business owner or IT professional this approach to providing solutions gives you some major advantages.
• Economies of scale – grow your business without growing your IT budget.
• Use applications as you need them in a pay as you go format.
• Easy applications, easy implementations and easy maintenance.
• Local, regional or global solutions are all the same. Have If you have Internet then you have access anywhere in the world.
• More efficient workforce means a better bottom line
• Big hardware buys are a thing of the past.
• Distributed software pricing is a fraction of the costs
• Monitor efficiency from a single vantage point and save a fortune
• Cloud integration allows you maximum flexibility and cost-savings when upsizing or changing workforce parameters.

In reality, the cloud and cloud benefits have been around for a long time (in computer years) so it is really not a new concept nor is it an unproven technology. When your company hosted a website on external servers, when you login to your webmail and even when you access an ATM – all of these are cloud functions that live somewhere other than where you are.

The benefits you derive from the cloud are significant in that you can access these from pretty much anywhere and still have the convenience of being able to interact with the data. So when you think of cloud development and cloud benefits, simply think of it as version 2.0 where companies and even individuals can start to deliver content and interact with applications rather than simply receive the benefit of operating in the cloud.